A study compared the progress of children encouraged to use inventive spelling with those encouraged to use traditional spelling in their creative writing. It was hypothesized that there would not be a significant difference in the writing samples produced in terms of their length or degree of elaboration. Participants were two second-grade…

This publication describes the Love and Logic approach to working with students. The approach is designed to teach students to think for themselves; to raise the level of student responsibility; to prepare students to function effectively in a society filled with temptations, decisions, and consequences; and to put the teacher in control. The book…

While several studies focus on how students learn, very few focus on how teachers teach. It has been assumed that successful learning is judged by effective teaching. To carry out learning tasks successfully, it is important for students to have multiple learning opportunities and "style-shift" while learning. On the other hand, teachers…

This study examined the impact of different styles of parental communication and teaching on children's problem solving, focusing on how parental teaching and communication styles affected children's performance on four problem-solving games involving deduction/categorization and planning. Thirty-two children ages 4 and 5 years and their families…

Designed for adult educators in various settings who are seeking to improve as teachers, this book describes a process adult educators can use to examine their beliefs about teaching and current teaching behavior in depth. It is intended to guide them through an exploration of who they really are as teachers, and then, through experiential…

Michel Foucault's theories provide a way to understand the power dynamics often present in teacher-training, in which teaching assistants negotiate among various "knowledges" in order to develop a classroom teaching style that both honors and resists their training. In "The Archaeology of (Gendered) Knowledge" (by Scot…

This presentation focuses on the qualities of effective teaching. It offers thoughts on the teacher/learner relationship, focusing on the challenge of teaching and the importance of caring about students and connecting with them. Professors' attention to their research over their teaching and the impact of their rigorous workloads is felt to cause…

This paper examines different types of student learning styles and outlines a four-step process for identifying and integrating these learning styles to provide students with the most effective educational experience possible. The paper lists five dimensions along which most learning styles can be categorized--global-analytical, verbal-imaginal,…

Lectures have a place in educational history and even a place in today's classroom, but students must be exposed to more than one style of teaching. After 20 minutes of listening to a lecture, most students reach a saturation point. To realize their maximum potential, students must do more than just listen in the classroom. They must engage in…

A study focused on graduate teaching assistants' (GTAs') perceptions of aspects of teaching and teaching style. Subjects, 120 of 197 randomly selected GTAs in 20 academic departments in a midwestern university, completed two survey instruments. Results indicated that GTAs perceive that students learn more from the lecture method and that…

Various combinations of personality type components have been suggested as possible attributes of teaching style. However, there is little evidence available as to how these teaching styles relate to teaching effectiveness. This report compares various combinations of personality type with observable teaching effectiveness behaviors. One purpose…

Cognitive mapping, one of the Educational Sciences developed by Joseph Hill, makes individualized mastery learning programs possible. This article reviews the cognitive mapping method of determining individual cognitive styles, discusses methods used to cater to these styles, and defines the seven Educational Sciences. (DC)

Higher educational institutions are increasingly called upon to make cost-cutting decisions in the types of courses offered, the maximum number of students allowed per section and course delivery modes. Lever (1992) says that this "doing more with less" is one of the core challenges facing community colleges and universities. All of us…

Maurice Merleau-Ponty's philosophy offers an existential phenomenological interpretation of subjectivity and the shared world. He offers a perceptually based philosophy which can be mined for implications and interpretations for a new style of teaching relevant to the contemporary social and educational scene. This paper analyzes Merleau-Ponty's…

Research on the communicative competency of faculty indicates that students can be motivated to learn by competent communicators. In general, communication experts have better competency skills, (i.e., they use more effective verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors) than do faculty as a whole. An area much in need of development for most faculty…